Life-guard for railway-cars.



G. A. PARMENTER;

LIFE GUARD r012 RAILWAY was. I APPLICATION FILED AUG. 30, 1910. 985,541,Patented Feb. 28, 1911.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE A. PARME-NTER, 0F CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS.

LIFE-GUARD FOB RAILWAY-CARS.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, GEORGE A. PARMECN- TER, citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at Cambridge, Massachusetts, have invented certain newand useful Improvements in Life-Guards for Railway-Cars, of which thefollowing is a specification.

My present invention relates to improvements in fenders or life guardsfor street railway cars of the type known as trip and drop scoop, andparticularly to those in which the pick up scoop or basket is carried bythe truck while the trip frame or gate is carried by the car body. Suchtype of wheel guard is particularly advantageous in connection with thedouble truck or swinging bogie cars which are now coming almostexclusively into use.

The invention has among others for its objects to simplify theconstruction, to reduce the cost, to enable it to be more easily appliedto the cars, to make it easy and certain in action, and of advantage inother respects as will hereinafter more fully appear.

The invention includes the novel features of construction andarrangement and combination of parts hereinafter described andparticularly set forth in the appended claims.

An embodiment of my invention is illus trated in the accompanyingdrawings in Figure 1 is a plan view of the fender or wheel guard withthe sills of the car and the pilotboard of the truck shown to illustratethe manner of mounting the wheel guard upon the car; Fig. 2 is a sideelevation of the same; and Fig. 3 is a detail view of the transverse barand its supports.

Referring by reference characters to this drawing, the numeral 2designates the car platform and3 the sills. The swiveled truck frame isindicated at 4:, having the usual cross bar or pilot board 5, to whichare secured hangers 6 provided with hooked or recessed portions 7 forreceiving and supporting the rear cross bar 8 of the basket or scoop 8.

In order to relieve the scoop or basket as far as possible of shocks or.jars due to passing over rail joints or rough tracks, I have devised avery simple form of spring hanger shown clearly in Fig. 2. This hangeris constructed from a spring bar doubled upon itself, one arm or member6" of the doubled portion being bolted to the pilot Specification ofLetters Patent.

Application filed August 30, 1910.

Patented Feb. 28, 1911.

Serial No. 579,665.

board, while the other arm or portion 6, which is spaced therefrom,carries the hook or recess 7 before referred to. In order to secureadditional cushion efiiect or resiliency in a vertical direction, theupper portion of the hanger is carried horizontally for a suitabledistance as indicated at 6. The rear bar 8 of the basket or scoop isretained in the recess in the hangers by the brackets 8", also bolted tothe pilot board.

Centrallyof the basket or scoop and at the rear edge thereof is locateda vertical arm 9 preferably of sheet metal with its lower end bent aquarter turn, and carried around the rear edge of the scoop, and beneath its lower face for a suitable distance, and to which it issuitably secured. Through this arm the scoop is normally held elevatedand dropped when desired in the manner and by the means which will nowbe described.

To the upper end of the arm 9 is pivotally connected the rear end of asheave carrying bracket 10, which is provided at its opposite end withpulleys or sheaves, or other antifriction devices, whichembrace betweenthem a radial bar 11 which is curved on the are of a circle which hasfor its center the pivotal axis of the truck. This bar has an gularlyturned ends 11 which are firmly seated in suitable holding clips ordevices 12 on the ends of atransverse bar 12. This bar in turn issupported by L-shaped hangers 13 pivotally connected 'at their. upperends with the car body, as, for instance, by securing them by means ofpivot or hinge bolts 14 to the angularly turned ends 15 of a cross bar16 secured to the sills of the car.

A spring 17 extending between bar 12 and a suitable fixed point on thecar platform, tends to throw the parts just described forward andquickly lower the scoop and hold it down, when not restrained by thefollowing described mechanism: Pivotally connected at their rear ends tothe L-shaped hangers 13 are a pair of longitudinally disposed bars orlinks 18 which are pivotally connected at their front ends to the rockerplates or arms 19 and 19. These plates or arms 19 and 19 are, in turn,carried by and at or near the ends of square shaft 19 mounted inbushings 20 turning in suitable bearings 21 secured to or carried by thesills of the car. The bars or links 18 have their front ends seated inrecesses or bifurcations in the plates 19 and 19, and the relation ofthe parts is such that when the members 19 and 19 are in the positionshown in full lines in Fig. 2 the pivot 18 is slightly above a lineextending between the squared shaft and the point of connection betweenthe bars 18 and the L-shaped hangers. Further upward movement of thepivots 18 is pre vented by the engagement of the lower edges of the barswith the bottoms of the recesses, so that in this position the bars orlinks 18 coact with the plates or arms 19 to form struts. As the platesor members are held, by the relation of the parts referred to, fromfurther backward rotation, it will be seen that the scoop or basket willbe held locked until the plates or members 19 and 1-9 are rotated tocarry the pivots 18 down past the dead center. This rocking isaccomplished automatically by the trip frame 20 which has at its upperend a plate 21 provided wit-h. an elongated slot in which is slidablyconnected the front end of a rod 22, the rear endof which has a similarsliding connection with a slot in the plate or n1ember 19.

The connection between the rod and plate 21 is normally at the rear endof the slot, so that while the gate or trip frame may be swung forwardlywithout affecting the tripping connections, the rearward movement of thetrip frame will at once pull forward upon the rod 22.

As the connection between the rear end of rod 22 and plate 19 isnormally with the front end of the slot, the forward pull of rod 22 willrock the plate and square shaft until the dead center is overcome, whenspring 17 will pull forward the parts and instantly drop the scoop. Assoon as the scoop has been dropped, however, the plate 19 assumes theposition shown in dotted lines in Fig. 2, in which position theconnection with the slot is such that free farther rearward movement ispermitted to the trip frame or gate so as to enable it to readily rideover an object such as a prostrated person without injury thereto. Inorder that the parts may be readily reset after they have been tripped,I provide a foottreadle 23 to the lower end of which is connected theone end of a flexible ele ment, such as a chain or cable, which passesover a pulley 24 and is connected at its other end with an arm 19 on theplate 19.

Having thus described my invention what I claim is:

1. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoopcarried by the truck frame, a curved bar extending transversely of thecar body and supported therefrom and capable of being bodily moved in adirection longitudinal of the car, a bracket connected with the scoopand having a part slidingly embracing said curved bar, and

locking and releasing means connected with said curved bar,substantially as described.

2. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoopcarried by the truck frame, a curved bar extending transversely of thecar body and supported there from and capable of being bodily moved in adirection longitudinal of the car, a bracket connected wit-h the scoopand having a part slidingly embracing said curved bar, one of saidparts, to wit, the bracket and curved bar, being pivoted upon ahorizontal axis to compensate for relative vertical movement between thetruck and car body, substantially as described.

3. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoopcarried by the truck frame, a curved bar extending transversely of thecar body and supported therefrom, and capable of being bodily moved in adirection longitudinal of the car, a centrally located arm or memberconnected with the scoop for holding it elevated, a bracket pivotallyconnected to said arm or member at its rear end, and having a slidingengagement with said curved bar at its opposite end, and locking andreleasing means for controlling the longitudinal movement of said curvedbar, substantially as described.

4. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoopcarried by the truck frame, a curved bar extending transversely of thecar body and supported therefrom. and capable of being bodily moved in adirection longitudinal of the car, a centrally located arm. or memberconnected with the scoop for holding it elevated, a bracket pivotallyconnected to said arm or member at its rear end, a pair of rollerscarried by said bracket and engaging opposite sides of said curved bar,and locking and releasing means for controlling the longitudinalmovement of said curved bar.

5. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoopcarried by the truck, and having an upwardly extending part, a bracketpivotally connected to said upwardly extending part, a bar extendingtransversely beneath the car body and supported therefrom and capable ofmovement in a direction longitudinal of the car, a curved bar having itsends rigidly connected to said transversely extending bar, said ing apart capable of vertical movement slidingly engaging said curved bar,and locking and releasing means for said transverse bar, substantiallyas described.

7. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoop, apart swung from the car body and interacting with a part carried by thescoop for holding the latter elevated, a rock shaft carried by the carbody, a pair of bars or links connected at their rear ends with saidpart swung from the car body, an offset connection between the frontends of said pair of bars and the rock-shaft, and means for operatingsaid rock shaft from one end thereof, substantially as described.

8. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoop, apart swung from the car body and interacting with a part carried by thescoop, a rock shaft carried by the car body and having plates or arms ator near the ends thereof, bars or links connectil'ig said plates or armswith the part swung from the car body, said bars or links coacting withsaid plates or arms when in one position toform struts, a trip frame orgate pivotally suspended from the front of the car body, and aconnection between said trip frame and one of the bars, said connectionhaving lost motion to permit further rearward movement of the gate whenthe strut has been broken, substantially as described.

9. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoop, apart swung from the car body and interacting with a part carried by thescoop, a rock shaft carried by the car body and having plates or arms ator near the ends thereof, bars or links connecting said plates or armswith the part swung from the car body, said bars or links coacting withsaid plates or arms in one position to form struts, a trip frame or gatepivotally suspended from the front of the car body, and a rod connectedat its forward end to a part carried by the trip frame above the pivotthereof and having its rear end provided with a limited slidingconnection with one of said plates, and being normally at the forwardlimit of said sliding movement.

10. The combination with a car body and truck frame, of a drop scoop, apart swung from the car body, and interacting with the part carried bythe scoop, a rock shaft carried by the car body and having plates orarms on opposite sides of the center thereof, bars or links connectingsaid plates or arms with the part swung from the car body, said bars orlinks coacting with said plates or arms in one position to form struts,a trip frame pivotally suspended from the front of the car body andhaving an upwardly extending part provided with an elongated slot, oneof said plates or members also having an elongated slot, and a rodhaving one end provided with a part bearing against the rear end of theslot of the trip frame and its other end provided with a part restingnormally in the front end of the slot in said plate, substantially asdescribed.

11. In combination with a car truck, a hanger comprising a bar ofresilient metal doubled upon itself and having one arm secured to thetruck and the other arm provided with a hook-shaped portion to form apivotal support for the scoop, substantially as described.

12. A spring hanger for the baskets or scoops of wheel guards,comprising a bar of spring metal doubled upon itself and provided at theends with means for attachment to a truck and to a scoop, a part of saiddoubled portion being turned horizontally or at right angles to theremaining portion, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

GEORGE A. PARMENTER.

Witnesses JAMES M. SPEAK, EDWIN S. OLARKSON.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each,by addressingthe Commissioner of Patents,

Washington, D. G.

